Digital photography has become increasingly popular way for consumers to enjoy picture taking. One particular advantage of digital photography is the ability to easily create and manage large collections of images using the electronic sorting and organizing capabilities provided by the personal computers that are typically used to manage and store such collections. Digital images are conveniently added to home collections using, for example, devices such as the Kodak EASYSHARE™ camera dock 6000 which provide a convenient way for a consumer to transfer image files from a camera to a computer while also conveniently providing an opportunity to recharge the battery stored in the camera so that the camera is ready for future use. Similarly, the Kodak EASYSHARE™ printer dock 6000A provides a docking capability that allows users to easily transfer images from a camera to a computer and also provides a high quality thermal image printer that can be used to generate images with or without the involvement of a personal computer.
Both the EASYSHARE™ 6000 AND EASYSHARE™ 6000A docking stations have been exceptionally well received in the marketplace based upon the efficiency and ease with which they facilitate the tasks of uploading images from a camera to a computer and printing such images.
Another advantage of both the EASYSHARE™ 6000 and EASYSHARE™ 6000A docking stations is that they provide an interface to digital cameras that recharges batteries in the camera during image transfer and afterward. The interface is capable of transferring an amount of power that is sufficient to recharge camera batteries over a period of time and, in the case of the EASYSHARE™ 6000A to operate the camera to permit printing of images stored therein.
It will be appreciated that it is not necessary to capture images in digital form in order for the images to be incorporated into a digital collection. For example, images that are captured on film can be automatically scanned into digital form by a photofinisher and stored electronically in online or local collections or can also be stored on memory devices or digital media such as Compact Disks (CDs) and Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) that can be quickly uploaded to a computer database. This allows conventional film-based photography to provide both the advantages of digital photography and conventional photography and this, in turn, encourages consumers to select a format for image capture that provides the best combination of cost, performance and convenience.
It will also be appreciated many consumers have extensive collections of images that are recorded on tangible mediums such as image bearing mediums on paper, slides and/or negatives. Many of these images are of great importance to photographers and to families. However for such images to be incorporated into a digital image collection such images must be converted into digital form.
There are a number of options available for consumers who have collections of images that are recorded on tangible mediums to convert such images into digital form. Typically, these options involve the use of a computerized digital image scanning system. There are both retail and home versions of such systems. One example of a retail version of such a computerized digital image scanning system is the Kodak Picture Maker Kiosk. This device allows consumers to scan photographic image bearing mediums, slides, and/or negatives and to produce image files that can be transmitted, used for collections and/or stored on memory devices and digital media. The Kodak Picture Maker Kiosk also enables a consumer to make printed copies of the image information contained in the photographic image bearing mediums, slides, or negatives.
Examples of home-computerized digital image scanning systems include personal computers equipped with so-called flat bed scanners. In flat bed scanners, images recorded on paper or in some other generally flat form are placed on a glass scanning platen and scanning equipment scans an area of the platen. Such flat bed scanners can scan various sizes of “flat art” including images, documents, artwork, and the like by being set up to physically accommodate the largest of the intended sizes. These devices are typically configured to handle documents which are typically 8.5″×11″ or A4 in size or smaller making the units large and impractical for casual transport as compared to a point and shoot digital camera that can be transported easily in a pocket or purse. These scanners can also include a variety of attachments to provide document transport functions to enable batch scanning of large numbers of images and negative and slide scanning.
Typically these flat bed scanners are configured as desktop computer peripheral devices and therefore they incorporate various data communication, control and power conversion structures suitable for such use. Some scanners of this type can operate independently from the computer when used as a component for an “all-in-one” device also incorporating a printer and modem to provide copying and faxing capabilities. However, scanners of this type typically do not include portable power supplies and have no removable memory storage capabilities when not connected to a computer.
Print scanners come in various sizes to accommodate different sizes of “flat art” including images, documents, artwork, and the like. When scanning documents that are larger that the scan aperture, it is known to use “digital stitching algorithms” to combine multiple overlapping sections of an image into a complete seamless digital image. Because many images are recorded on tangible mediums that are stored in photo albums with image bearing mediums adhered to pages with many different techniques using glues, adhesives, and tapes, removal of these image bearing mediums from the photo albums would be labor intensive, time consuming, and could subject fragile, one of a kind, images to potential damage. Since photo albums typically are formed by bound pages it would not be possible to scan these pages with a smaller format scanner with an incorporated print feed mechanism. In addition, when attempting to scan bound albums with a typical flat bed scanner, damage to the binder, binding means, and/or book spine could occur when pressing an opened album against the scan aperture. Finally, transporting a large format document scanner, that is not capable of operating independently from a computer, to an event such as a family holiday celebration in order to copy images from a bound photo album would be difficult if not impractical.
Another problem with such flat bed scanning systems and other known scanning devices for scanning a document having an image recorded thereon is that such systems are often difficult to operate, are non-intuitive and generate images in a manner that is difficult for the non-regular user to incorporate into existing collections.
Another popular example of a home computerized digital imaging system is the sheet-fed type scanner. In sheet-fed scanners a document slide, transparency, business card, or other media to be scanned is placed in a feeder system and is moved relative to a scanning head which is typically a linear array scanner imager. Sheet fed scanners are capable of scanning large volumes of documents by automatically passing the documents through the feeder system in a serial fashion. However, the feeding systems on such sheet fed scanners are typically not well adapted to receive oversize media or media that is of uneven thickness. Such systems also typically do not have portable power supplies and must be connected to a personal computing system to allow for image processing and storage.
A further popular example of a home-computerized digital imaging system includes a class of so-called hand-held scanners. One example of such a hand-held scanner is the QuickLink Pen Scanner from Wizcom Technologies. The QuickLink Pen scanner is a pen-shaped scanner that enables a user to scan and store printed text, tables and charts on a printed page using local memory and to transfer the data that is scanned to a computer, PDA or cell phone. The scanned information can be directly transferred from the pen scanner to any personal computer application in real-time. The QuickLink Pen scanner is also capable of storing up to 1000 pages of text data. This text data can be transferred through an infrared or serial port. A built-in Character Bar on the QuickLink allows text to be input manually.
This pen type of scanner however, while well adapted for scanning lines of text, is not easily used to capture images as it lacks the color image resolution capabilities, the graphics image processing capabilities and memory capacity for high quality image scanning. Further, such a pen type image scanner provides a relatively small sized image capture area such that even if these limitations are overcome, capturing even a modestly sized image would require many scanned passes over the image to capture image information for the entire image. This in turn requires a very effective stitching algorithm to derive a high quality image from such scanned data.
What is needed therefore is a scanning device that can be used to scan images from a wide variety of image bearing mediums. What is also needed is a scanning device that provides a flexible and effective platform for image scanning that can be efficiently used to scan images that are of irregular configuration and that can also be used to effectively scan images that are of a conventional size or configuration.
Such a scanning device should be readily useable with other imaging technology, such as personal computers and devices such as docking stations. Thus, what is also needed is a scanning system and method that is compatible with existing computer and imaging hardware to minimize the number of independent connections that must be made to a computer to facilitate image transfer. Such a scanning system and method operates in a fashion that is consistent with the operation of other image capture devices.